Reader Design Dilemma: Solved

Back in February, Sara wrote to me looking for inspiration for a family calendar.  I offered up some commercial products, some DIY ideas, and the possibility of combining them, here.

Well, Sara just sent me a note saying "the calendar nut has been cracked."

Here's what she did:

I love the combination of magnetic surface with a simple, standard paper calendar clipped on, and the little magnetic pencil cup is super smart.

We have a big sheet of metal like this in our pantry, mostly for our spice cannisters, but we also use the bottom portion as a pin board for the week's meal plan, recipes, and coupons for local takeout.

Ours is from Home Depot, and is technically one of those splatter shields that you can put next to or behind your stove.  At $50ish dollars, it wasn't exactly cheap, but it was actually cheaper than having a larger sheet cut down.

You could also use magnetic paint if you didn't want sheet metal, but I kind of like the industrial look!

How do you manage your family calendar?  Anyone else use sheet metal as a magnet board?